SWORD ART ONLINE -BATTALION- ソードアートオンライン: 大隊
by OtakuFiend
Summary: Akihiro, Yuichi and Kaoru striven to get as far as they can in Sword Art Online. In the midst of doing so, they formed a guild: Band of Survivors. They swore an oath to get all the people they can to finish Sword Art Online. But as time passes, the oath is on the verge of reckoning, and Akihiro as leader must do what he can to ensure the end of the game is still in possible sight.


**SWORD ART ONLINE  
-BATTALION-  
ソードアート****·オンライン****: 大隊**

The Frenzy Boar disintegrated to bright blue crystals that disappeared after Akihiro laid his final strike on the back of its head, its health bar completely emptied. He gave a sigh and sheathed his Anneal Blade with a loud _shing _and _clank_. Akihiro felt tired, even after running around the plains just killing 23 boars to grind up his experience points. He never knew he would feel this tired even in a virtual reality MMO game. But the NerveGear is one amazing piece of equipment to do all these possibilities, well, save for the fact that it kills players if they were to die in-game. Ever since the announcement of Sword Art Online revealed to be a death game a couple of in-game days ago, it traumatized every single one of the 10,000 players that were online, including Akihiro. All sorts of things were running through his head during that day; his family, his friends, his dream job, his amazingly large amount of stupid anime to finish on his list. But whatever happens; happens. It was a truly breathtaking experience, now it's a journey to strive for survival. It was fight to live, or live to die. The flashback of the incident has suddenly been interrupted by Akihiro's friend, Yuichi, also known in Sword Art Online as "Osamu".  
"Hey, Akihiro!" he called out, his voice echoing across the fields.

* * *

**_TIME _**_November 8, 2022, 13:47pm AST  
__**LOCATION **__West Field, 1__st__ Floor, on the way to Starting City_

The two friends strode the long pavement path to the Starting City. They just felt like crashing to their beds after a long day out killing some boars, and they were only the first enemies in Sword Art Online to encounter. "How many did you take on?" asked Yuichi.  
"Twenty-three," Akihiro replied, "How's Kaoru going with her shopping?"  
"Not good, she messaged me saying there's nothing good in the stores, and the Anneal Blade isn't even there" Yuichi laughed, "I told her to come with us to the West Field, but I guess girls are girls and they go shopping instead."  
"Even after the big guy said 'it's not a game'," Akihiro chuckled. Yuichi pulled a weird-looking face.  
"Hey, Akihiro…"  
"Yeah?"  
"Your name sounds a lot like Akihiko."  
"Remind me who that is again?"  
"Kayabe Akihiko? The creator of You Die Now Online?"  
"Oh!"  
Yuichi couldn't help but laugh, "Man, it's only been two days and you forgot the culprit of it all?"  
Akihiro couldn't have forgotten him, couldn't he? No, he just brushed him off, that's all. He just wanted to pay more attention to getting out of this hellhole.  
The sun is burning their heads badly, and they needed some rest, but first they needed to find Kaoru, and they have no idea where the hell she is. The Starting City is pretty large for a starting place in an MMO. Usually they're small, like a village. But Akihiro never knew what was coming; even the death declaration for Sword Art Online was short of foreseeing. Eventually, Akihiro and Yuichi finally reached the big starting place, wondering how they're going to find her in this maze. They tried messaging her where about the damned place is she, but she would just reply "around the corner past the group of NPCs in robes". That was specific in their eyes, _real _specific. After about 20 minutes of walking in the scorching heat, pushing past other players and NPCs and finding their way through the city, they finally found Kaoru. "What took you both so long? Did you stop to make love or something?" she complained.  
"What the- no! What about you? Were you hoping that you'd level up by browsing stores?" Akihiro shot back.  
"Shut up! And no, I just wanted better gear than this stupid starter sword!" she pulled out her Small Sword, the first you start with in the game. "It's on the verge of breaking and I need a new sword now! And why doesn't the vendors sell any of those Anneal Blades you guys have?"  
"You don't find it in the stores, silly," laughed Yuichi, "you have to complete the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest. Then you'll get your Anneal Blade."  
"Don't worry Kaoru; we'll get you your sword later on after we sell our Boar Hides. Let's just have a break today."  
"Speaking of boars, how many did you both of kill?"  
"I only took out fifteen," stated Yuichi, he pointed to Akihiro, "and he got twenty-three."  
"But the hides are only like four Col each. You aren't gonna get that much."  
"We already have quite a lot. We got Col just from killing them," Akihiro pointed out, "right now we just need some rest and something to eat."  
"I'm not resting 'till I get a new sword!" Kaoru exclaimed. This was going to be headache. A new Anneal Blade would cost 16,000 Col, which meant they were going to have to do an all-out Frenzy Boar massacre on the entire first floor for that much Col, all for just a new sword that even a newbie can use. But thank goodness that you only had to complete just one quest to get it. As much as Akihiro and Yuichi wanted to lie back, Kaoru is losing two things: her sword's durability and her patience. She needs new sword pronto, otherwise she could just become a Beast Tamer and the whole thing would be solved, just in a less fortunate way. It's not even an actual class on Sword Art Online, so what's the point of being one if the title screams out "Sword"? But what else can be done? Akihiro sighed while rubbing the back of his neck. He just wanted to sell all the hides and lie down somewhere shady, forget buying the sword and eating. Those two can wait. But Kaoru and Yuichi couldn't, so for the sake of her safety and her mouth to be shut, the trio set off to edge of town to Horunka Village.


End file.
